Mother who breastfeeds pup 'didn't want to waste it':
This has outraged and disgusted some people. It apparently took the full front page of Hawkes Bay Today. But is it news? Leighton Smith was discussing it on the radio yesterday, and postulated that news is anything unusual or out of the ordinary. But really - should this sort of thing take up as much media real estate as it did?
I mean, who actually cares? Obviously some people do, but its really none of their collective businesses. Why should people get all up in arms about someone else's personal choice(s)?
In my opinion, although it is sensational and sensational stuff does sell, I deem it entirely un-newsworthy - a veritable waste of space and time.
Case sets "frightening precedent":
This is case of a father who suffocated his five-month-old daughter hours after being told her brain would never develop. He was aquitted of all charges.
That jury would have been the last place on earth I would have wished to be. It was reported that there was not a dry eye in the court, and having a 17-day old son myself, I have total sympathy for this man. I completely understand his actions.
However, even in such a situation as this, is murder excusable? This jury said 'yes'.
I say 'no'.
This was premeditated murder. He willfully took the life of his daughter. And this case does indeed set a frightening precedent. It is illegal in New Zealand to take the life of another. How would Lesley Martin have fared with this case as a precedent? She was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment for attempted murder after injecting her mother with a fatal dose of morphine.
It is a little frightening, really.
